By Dan Moffett
Early findings from an engineering consultant are helping to explain why the Inlet Cay neighborhood in Ocean Ridge is prone to street flooding.
After studying the drainage system on the 16-acre island, Robert Higgins told town commissioners on Feb. 12 that the 60-year-old network of pipes does not have the capacity to meet today’s standards.
Higgins said current requirements would call for a system of 18-inch and 24-inch pipes. The island network is made up of 8-inch and 24-inch pipes.
Inlet Cay’s capacity to move water off streets is only a fraction of what it should be, he said. “The limitation on the drainage is the pipe size.”
The deficiency all but guarantees that the neighborhood will have a street flooding event during every rainy season.
Higgins said he reviewed four reports from boring samples from recent years, which found significant concentrations of muck and peat in the island’s soil that are compressing slowly over time.
“The structures are not settling because they’re built on pilings,” Higgins said. “But everything else is settling.”
Higgins is expected to make recommendations on improving the system after completing his study this spring.
In other business:
• During budget workshops last summer, the commission decided to add two patrol officers and a dispatcher to the Police Department to help deal with growing numbers of visitors from across the bridge.
Chief Hal Hutchins told commissioners that the expansion was warranted: “The activity levels we’re seeing on the law enforcement side are increasing every day, based upon outside forces that we can’t control.”
Hutchins moved closer to fully staffing the department when the commission approved his hiring of Officers Lequandra Beckford and Aaron Choban, and dispatcher/clerk Brittney Good.
Beckford is a graduate of Glades Central High School and holds an associate’s degree from Palm Beach State College. She was employed as a corrections officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and previously worked for the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office.
Choban graduated from Forest Hill High School and Palm Beach State College Criminal Justice Institute. Good graduated from Santaluces High School and is a Florida-certified EMT.
In January, the town hired Wendy Ghamary of Boynton Beach to fill another dispatcher opening.
Hutchins has two more patrol officer positions to fill to reach the full complement of 24 full-time employees the commission approved. The expanded department’s salaries amount to about $1.4 million annually.
• At Vice Mayor James Bonfiglio’s urging, commissioners approved designating Commissioner Don MaGruder to be the town’s point person on issues related to the sand transfer plant at Boynton Inlet.
MaGruder’s task is to monitor a deepening dispute between Manalapan and Palm Beach County over a plan to install seven beach groins in South Palm Beach to slow erosion. Manalapan officials believe the groins would steal sand heading south and damage the town’s beaches.
Manalapan commissioners have suggested they might not continue to cooperate with the sand transfer plant’s operation if the county goes through with the groin plan.
Without the transfer plant, sand can’t move south around the jetty to nourish Ocean Ridge’s beaches.
• Town Manager Jamie Titcomb says residents should plan on sticking around after the next commission meeting on March 5.
The town is planning to honor Mayor Geoff Pugh with a reception marking his 18 years of government service to Ocean Ridge. Pugh decided not to run for another term in the March 13 election.
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